Think of inventions that have changed our world and the computer comes to mind. So does the internal combustion engine. With it we are likely to place the telephone, the jet engine and the ball-point pen. We probably don’t think of the typewriter and its close associate: shorthand.
Like steam-locomotives and sailing-ships, shorthand-typists are still with us today, though mostly unemployed as such. Their skills have become obsolete, just as linotype-operators and compositors have been ousted by toilers at screens and keyboards. Mostly women, shorthand-typists shared their stenographic skills with Parliamentary and other reporters who earned their bread by noting what other people say. We call to mind Dickens, who learned Gurney’s shorthand system in his spare time and became a Parliamentary reporter.
Isaac Pitman was not the first progenitor of a shorthand system. Shorthand has a history going back at least as far as Cicero but Pitman was its most conspicuous proponent. Before the days of sound-recording his geometric system made it possible for a skilled practitioner to catch the words of speech and give them a written form. Pitman’s shorthand has an aesthetic appeal as well as a functional usefulness. The fact that it has been superseded has not erased it from the memory of those familiar with it. They find themselves irresistibly thinking in terms of outlines. It is addictive. Like Hebrew, Pitman’s system relies on consonants with the addition of vowels as an extra.
Pitman did more than introduce an efficient system of stenography. He raised questions that have to be faced about our way with words – the translation of speech into written form, the efficiency or otherwise of our alphabets, the limitations of language. Our study of the Scriptures must take account of these issues. What we intend to mean and what we are understood to mean when we speak of God’s Word is one such issue.
Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) was one of those people whose dates fit him neatly into the 19th century. He started life as a teacher and gave the world a new subject for schools to teach. His belief in God was shaped by his attachment to Swedenborg. His system of strokes, hooks and rings gave us a new way with language. He and it deserve our respect. In Pitman’s achievement we have a notable example – together with many others – of what used to be called common grace. It is a gift of God that benefits us all. The same is true of language(s). There are Isaac Pitman memorial plaques on the Trowbridge town hall wall and in Bath Abbey.
THE HEDINGHAMS
The 36-page parish magazine of the Hedinghams, Essex has a winsome mix of Christianity and Englishness. It caters for a community that loves wild flowers, games of bowls, ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Cider with Rosie’ for its book club and – of course – cricket, with the April fixtures figuring prominently. The club has access to a handsome ground for its games. The Rector is Liz Paxton.
NORTH PINE
‘Putting Jesus at the centre’ is the slogan of North Pine Anglican church of St John in southern Queensland, Australia. David Ruthven leads the ministry team as they will be focusing on ANZAC day on Sunday 25 April. Alpha is an important event in the church calendar. So is respect for the local language groups Turrbal Kabi and Waka.
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